First Look: Nook HD+: 9-inch tablet starts at $269

First Look: Nook HD+: 9-inch tablet starts at $269

3:06 /
September 28, 2012

B&N undercuts price of Amazon's Fire HD 8.9"

-I'm David Carnoy, executive editor for cnet.com., and I'm here in downtown New York for the launch of the Nook HD+.
This is a 9-inch tablet.
That's right 9 inches, not 8.9 inches, and it has a 1920 x 1280 resolution and 256 PPI, that's pixels per inch, and that's just slightly less than the 264 pixels per inch on the iPad.
This is about 20% lighter than the iPad.
It also costs a lot less.
Barnes & Noble is making a big deal about how this starts at $269 for the 16-gigabyte model and only $299 for the 32-gigabyte model.
It doesn't quite have the signature Nook Hook at the bottom of it, but this does have a little circle, so this model compared to the 7-inch model actually has that little signature design element.
It also has expandable memory.
This does have a microSD card slot.
It doesn't have a camera, but it does have bluetooth and, in terms of HDMI, there is no HDMI port.
This has an accessory.
It's rather expensive at $39, but you can do HDMI out with that accessory.
Like the 7-inch model, this one also runs Ice Cream Sandwich, a skinned version of Ice Cream Sandwich.
This is not an open Android model.
This obviously has a Barnes & Nobles own interface on it
and it has redesigned that interface with new features.
You can now do various profiles with it, different members of your family.
The other big new feature here is Nook Video.
It isn't Voodoo or something else like that.
This is actually a Nook Video Store.
Barnes & Nobles has also redesigned the shopping experience with something called Nook channel that's a new recommendation engine.
It doesn't apply to just books, but also to apps and video.
There is no access to the Google Play store from this device.
This is a curated app experience, about 10,000 apps right now in the Nook Store and more being added each day.
-In terms of performance-like, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch, this has the same 1.5-gigahertz processor, so you can see pretty similar performance in terms of the Kindle Fire HD at least at first glance.
As for battery life, you get about 10 hours of reading on this device
and Barnes & Nobles said you can get up to 9 hours of video watching.
This does not have a set of stereo speakers, but it does have a single speaker.
Barnes & Nobles says it has worked with SRS to improve the sound of that speaker.
In terms of other features, Barnes & Nobles talked about sort of enhanced magazine reading features on the device and also catalogs.
This device is available for pre-order now and ships at the end of October.
It is only available in one color that is slate.
I'm David Carnoy and that's the Nook HD+.
Thanks for watching.